https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7786-4235
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Abstract
Lowlands of Yaounde, Cameroon are facing soil pollution due to all type of organic and inorganic wastes, particularly heavy metal due to anthropogenic activities. Identifying macrophytes species able to develop on heavy metal polluted soils remains an essential step in the phytoremediation process which used living green plants. In this study, floristic surveys using the quadrat method were conducted in lowland areas surrounded by heavy metal pollution sources activities of Yaounde to identify macrophytes species with phytoremediation capacities. Inventories were conducted in 11 polluted lowlands and results were compared to control which is an unpolluted area. A total of 189 species belonging to 138 genera distributed in 63 families were identified on polluted sites. Macrophytes diversity was higher in each polluted site compared to the control. Poaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceae, and Solanaceae families showed a higher taxonomic richness on polluted sites (23, 20, 14, 12, and 12 taxa, respectively). Shannon diversity index of the lowlands polluted sites 2.69 was significantly higher than the control 2.3. Pielou equitability index in contaminated sites (0.459–0.847) was not significantly different from the control 0.747. Based on the abundance and relative frequency (≥10%), our results show that more than 10 macrophytes species existing in these lowlands areas could be tested in preliminary trials to investigate their phytoremediation/cleaning-up capacities on polluted soils in the tropical zone.
Novelty and impacts of the submission
This study presents original results for field surveys in lowland sites polluted in Yaounde-Cameroon. The screening of 11 polluted lowlands compared to a natural lowland (unpolluted), made it possible to identify species which may exhibit the best capacities to adapt to environmental changes and to develop in contaminated areas, in particular heavy metals. This work can be a preliminary study around the species growing in contaminated lowlands. Thus, this study can be reproduced in other regions, to compare the results obtained and identify potential plants for the lowlands remediation in Cameroon.